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MEDITERRANEAN BATHS
Visiting the modern
Hammam in Ankara and lstanbul
Early Greek and
Roman Batths
Mass Bathing in
the Balnea and Thermae
The Islamic Hammam
is Born
The "'Turkish Bath"
Visits Europe and
America
Private Sweat
Bathing Cubicles
FINNISH SAUNA
A Visit in the
Dead of Winter
History of
the Nordic Bath
Sauna in Europe
Sauna in Japan
Sauna in America
NATIVE AMERICAN SWEAT LODGE
Joining Running
Foot in a Navajo Sweat
Lodge
A Guest at an Oglala
Sun Dance Ceremony
History of
Sweat Lodges
Hot Rock Sweat Lodge
Direct
Fire Sweat Lodge
Sweating Without
a Sweat Lodge
Origin of the
Temescal
The Temescal Today
The
Sweat Lodge Joins the Modern World
RUSSIAN BANIA
A Boisterous
Bath in Leningrad
History
of the Great Russian Bath
Bannik,
the Spirit of the Bania
The
Birth Bania
The
Wedding Bania
The
Death Bania
Health & the Bania
The
Bania after the Russian Revolution
The
Spreading Influence of the Russian Steam Bath
SAUNA & HEALTH
Sauna &
Health
Sweating
Skin
Heating
& Cooling the Inner Body
Positive
Effects of Negative Ions
Spirits
of the Sweat
Social
Sweating
SPECIAL SAUNA CONCERNS FOR WOMEN
FINNISH SAUNA
The Sauna in America
©1997 Mikkel Aaland All Rights Reserved
A group of my friends in a public sauna in Richmond,
California.
Photo copyright Mikkel Aaland.
The first sauna in North America was built by Finnish and Swedish
immigrants who settled in the Delaware River Valley before the American
Revolution in 1638.
Bath houses were common among the early
settlers and some historians believe Sauna was the first name given to
what became Philadelphia. Today in the center of the Philadelphia Navy
Yard a plaque marks the site of that first sauna.
The largest wave
of Finnish immigrants came to the United States and Canada between 1850
and 1920 when four hundred thousand Finns left their hard homeland to try
their luck in the "new world." Most of them settled in Michigan, Minnesota
and Wisconsin where the "new world" weather was comparable to Finland's.
Some later moved west to California, Oregon and Washington to work in rock
quarries, ship yards, lumber mills and fishing industries. Rocklin,
Berkeley, and Astoria, Oregon contained strong Finnish
communities--complete with Finnish cultural halls and public saunas.
The early establishment of a sauna on the homestead lent a sense
of familiarity, order and security to immigrants who found themselves in
an alien land. The construction of the saunas differed little from those
in Finland. The "savusauna" was the easiest to build since the tools and
materials needed were few and simple. With some logs, stone and mortar, a
broad ax for hewing and an ordinary bitted ax for chopping, a plumb-line,
an auger and a few pounds of roofing nails, a sauna could be built in a
few days.
When the Finns first arrived in America they had a
difficult time assimilating the culture. Perhaps their greatest obstacle
was the language. Unlike other Scandinavian languages, Finnish has no
words in common with English, limiting Finns to menial jobs, poor
neighborhoods and giving them little chance to promote their own culture.
The Finns sensed that trying to communicate their bathing habits would
cause embarrassment since heterosexual bathing could be construed as being
immodest, immoral or at least sexually suggestive.
Children were
especially vulnerable to teasing and mocking by non-Finnish classmates who
did not understand family bathing. For the children trying to explain such
sauna words as "vihta," "kinas," and "loyly" was impossible because
English has no equivalent. Many Finns gave up the bath when they became
older.
Americans who chanced to see the sauna in use were puzzled.
"What is this strange nocturnal rite?" Farmers in Minnesota, neighbors to
Finns, complained to authorities that Finns were worshipping pagan gods in
strange log temples--seen from time to time cavorting naked in the
moonlight in what seemed to be ritualistic dances.
A sauna went on
trial in Wright County, Minnesota in 1880. An American homesteader
demanded that the Finns' public sauna be removed "from the middle of the
road." The farmer went to court in an attempt to rid the countryside of
"that pagan temple." On the day of the trial, the courtroom was packed
with curious citizens, most of whom never heard of a sauna. But it was
proved to the judge's satisfaction that the Finns were law abiding,
American citizens of a staid Lutheran caiibre when it was explained the
sauna was a place for cleaning and not for worshipping pagan gods. The
judge ordered the plaintiff to pay the defendant thirty dollars for
damages to his reputation plus forty dollars to have the sauna moved to a
more isolated location.
From the turn of the century until the
early 60s, when the media seemed to explode with the sauna, Finnish
bathing was making a name for itself in the United States. In the late 20s
and early 30s, Finnish athletes were competing well internationally and
publicly advocating the sauna for training. Paavo Nurmi, better known as
the "Flying Finn," won nine gold medals in three Olympic competitions,
setting 25 track and field world records. Some people felt his use of the
sauna was responsible for his endurance and physical prowess.
The
relationship between American athletes and the sauna was off to a flying
start with Nurmi's feats, and has been gaining momentum ever since. In
196O, the Olympic Games Organizing Committee contracted A. Winston
Interiors (which later became Viking Sauna) to build saunas in Squaw
Valley, California, where they scored a tremendous success. The units were
in constant use by the athletes from all participating countries.
With the American passion for sports, saunas at the Olympics
certainly helped bring saunas into the limelight, but there were other
reasons as well. After World War II, Finnish Americans were looked upon
with a new respect. Second and third generation Finns returned from the
war as proven American citizens, ready to fight and die for the U.S..
Finland was receiving world attention for her heroics against Russia
during the Winter War of 1939-4O. Although Finland lost much of her
eastern territory to Russia, it was generally recognized that the Finns
had fought valiantly for independence against overwhelming odds. World
sympathy went out toward Finland. A few years later, tiny Finland again
impressed the world when she became the first European country to pay back
her war reparations debt.
Thus, Finland's notoriety primed the
American public for a Finnish custom. The press reported the President of
Finland's longing for a sauna during a visit to America in 1961. A sauna
company responded by driving its "saunamobile" demonstrator to New York
and placing it at the service of the distinguished guest. Later, President
Kennedy and his family enjoyed a sauna in the White House.
Although the electric sauna stove had been invented several years
before the sauna became popular in America, its appearance told
entrepeneurs that the sauna could be adapted to the American market. Sauna
manufacturers began advertising in Finnish/American newspapers. Reports
from sauna heater manufacturers declare that business has increased
steadily since the 50s, expanding to include sauna enthusiasts of
non-Finnish descent. "Relaxing Sauna Baths' Growing Popularity Lifts
Equipment Sales" proclaims the front page headline of a 1962 Wall Street
Journal.
When it became apparent that Finns weren't the only ones
interested in buying saunas, the manufacture of heaters picked up
considerably. Viking Sauna, founded on the West Coast, became one of the
most successful American sauna companies. lt began with virtually no
market in 1961, selling only 50 saunas in their first year. Seventeen
years later, annual sales reached into the thousands. When I spoke with
Robert Jones, president of Viking, he translated the growth and success of
the sauna into everyday business talk:
To start with, take a
process which is thousands of years old in one part of the world and
relatively unknown in another, and of course, we had an immediate
marketing challenge. 'It's unknown.' 'It's foreign.' 'I've never heard of
it.' Despite the obvious benefits of the sauna, its marketing
opportunities had to be laboriously explained to potential dealers and
distributors, and its many consumer benefits to the public. Fortunately
times have changed and thousands of saunas are now in use throughout
America. And, I might even say, they have become a part of the American
scene.
Books, press coverage, sauna manufacturers listed in every
phone book; the word sauna familiar to almost every American; thousands of
saunas sold yearly; the sauna has been accepted in America. According to
many purists, however, there has been too much commercialization and too
many variations on the theme. Disgusted Finns, and others who knew better,
grew weary of saying, "No, sorry, that sauna has too few rocks," or, "This
is not a sauna, it has NO rocks." Some of the modern saunas employed
infrared lights, sun lamps, so the bather had to turn like a chicken on a
spit to keep from getting burned. "What's going on here?" cried the
knowledgeable Finns, "Saunas that heat only to 150 degrees F?" When the
sauna was first tested by the Underwriters Laboratory, they were very
concerned about subjecting someone to such intense heat, for they had no
experience with saunas, no precedents.
"A Turkish bath is not a
sauna," said the Finnish spokespeople over and over again. "Nor is the
sauna a place to hide illicit sex." That saunas were being used as
brothels outraged Finns more than other misuses and misunderstandings. As
everyone interested in the Finnish style of bathing has found, cultural
transplants require care--and it may be a while before American sauna
standards match those of the Finns.
[authors note: I've removed
some of the more dated material from this section but the condition of the
sauna in America remains very much the same today in 1997 as it did back
in 1978 when I did my initial research.]
